Admiral Yamamoto was the strategic planner for Pearl Harbor and he was no young officer.
It is the duty of the young to plan for the future. Planning for growth does not equate to planning world domination.
Yamamoto was also sent out to sea for several months in 1939-1940 to remove him as a target for the young firebrands, especially in the Army, who were furious at him for advocating not going to war with the USA. When the path to war was decided he insisted upon the Pearl Harbor attack as the only way to get a temporary advantage over the US and maybe force us into a negotiated end. He had absolutely no hope of winning a long war, and by long he meant more than 6 months.
Yes. After he was ordered by the “boy emperor” and his “Spirit Warriors” who ran the Japanese military at the time of the attack.
They were all young, flushed with success after the their stunning success in the Russo-Japanese war and the murdering and raping 10s of millions in China and they bought the Japanese to the point of extinction.
Seriously, read the Book “Flyboys.”
It gives an extensive history of the contemporary Japanese officer corps at that time, the massive crimes that they perpetrated, and how they rose to power.
"In the early years of the 20th century Japan's first generation army underwent a shift to the 2nd generation, which had its own ideas about leadership.
These new military leaders were not former Samurai, but common men who had fought in the front lines in Asia.
These simple men were not strategists & valued mainly “glory.”
They forgot, or did not know, that Japan had not the strength to press home victory against Russia and did not appreciate the strategic wisdom with which their predecessors had sought Roosevelt's timely intervention.
These new military leaders believed that it was “Yamato damashii” (spirit - balls to you & me) that had provided the victories, and were convinced that this was Japan's “secret weapon” that would defeat America & her allies...”
- Flyboys
Thank you for your post
I think the Chinese are not going to use their military except as a defense. Considering colonization and Nanjing, I don’t blame them. The only time they will likely mobilize will be when they are threatened with military confrontation from another country.